JSO Promotes David Schultz

The Jackson Symphony Orchestra is pleased to announce that Assistant Conductor David Schultz will be promoted to Associate Conductor for the 2011-2012 season. As part of his promotion, he will be directing the entire February 4, 2012, concert – featuring David Adams’s The Chairman Dances and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7 – as well planning and conducting virtually all pops, education and chamber music events. He will also continue in his capacity as Production Manager, Community Music School Director, and Music Director of the Jackson Youth Symphony.

“Over the past two years, David has demonstrated exceptional skills as a conductor and administrator,” JSO Music Director Stephen Osmond said. “He has gained tremendous respect from both the musicians and staff of the orchestra.” Osmond was Associate Conductor from 1977-1978 before being appointed Music Director.

In May, David received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting at Michigan State University under the guidance of Leon Gregorian and Raphael Jimenez. Prior to his doctoral work, he graduated magna cum laude from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Music degree in Viola Performance where he studied with Matthew Michelic. During his time at Lawrence he studied conducting with both Bridget-Michaele Reischl and David Becker, and also spent a semester in Vienna, Austria, where he studied both viola and conducting with Matthias Maurer. Schultz has studied conducting with Marin Alsop and Gustav Meier at the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, with Harold Farberman and Leon Botstein at the Conductors Institute at Bard College in New York, and with Christophe Chagnard of the Northwest Sinfonietta. He has been a participant at the Aspen Summer Music Festival in Colorado. In 2008 he received his Master of Music degree in Viola Performance at Michigan State University under the tutelage of Robert Dan, with additional studies as a Master’s Conducting Apprentice.

Dr. Schultz is an adjunct faculty member at Michigan State University, serving as Music Director of the contemporary-music ensemble Musique 21. Previously, he held positions with the Mason Orchestral Society as Music Director of the Mason Philharmonic and Assistant Conductor of the Mason Symphony. An active professional violist as well, he is a member of the Lansing Symphony Orchestra; his playing experience also includes the Battle Creek and Jackson symphonies in Michigan, the Green Bay Symphony and Fox Valley Symphony in Wisconsin, and the Northwest Sinfonietta and Tacoma Symphony Orchestra in Washington. Also active as a professional film composer and arranger, he has scored films in Sisbro Studio’s Riddle Solvers series, including Riddle in a Bottle and the upcoming release Shark Riddle.